Exploring the Roots of Social Theory and Inquiry

Exploring the Roots of Social Theory and Inquiry: Making Sense of Social Life gives students the tools they need to uncover, describe, and evaluate the theorizing that underlies social studies, and then shows them how to do their own theorizing.

This hybrid text analyzes well-known social studies addressing contemporary issues of interest to students. It instructs through examples that demonstrate how social scientists use concepts, data, and methods as raw materials to construct images of social reality in order to address specific problems. Through these examples readers learn to evaluate the soundness of theorizing, assess the coherence of concepts, weigh the merits of methodological approaches, and consider how data is employed to address social and intellectual problems.

Study questions and assignments in each chapter show students how to do their theorizing on topics and problems of interest to them. The first undergraduate text of its kind to focus on the actual work of theorizing, rather than simply surveying already established theories, Exploring the Roots of Social Theory and Inquiry is an engaging text for undergraduate social theory and social problems courses.

Devereaux Kennedy earned his Ph.D. in sociology at Binghamton University. Dr. Kennedy is currently a professor in the Sociology Department at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, where he teaches courses in sociological theory, and social deviance and social control. His research interests include social control and long-range, global social change.